Can RTE ever start a program on time?

angeleyes

Any of you who have Sky know that if you want to remember a program all you have to do is tag it.

However, I find it extremely irrating with RTE (9 o'clock except for the news) does not mean 9 o'clock.

I had Joey tagged last night and it was 5 minutes past 9 when it started. I have noticed it with other program schedules too. If a program is to start at 8.15 well you can allow another 3 or 4 minutes for ads.

Has anyone else noticed RTE's shoddy timekeeping?

angeleyes :mad:

Doodah7

Noticed this last night alright. Even the 9 o'colock news didn't start till around 9.04!!! Damn RTE, I actually caught sight of the the Daniel O'Donnell show beacuse of their timekeeping!!!

Töpher

Aye, its terrible. I don't have digital, have to use their clock on telketext to know what tim ethey're at, and its about 5 minutes out on that too! Cappers!

djpaul

angeleyes wrote:

Any of you who have Sky know that if you want to remember a program all you have to do is tag it.

However, I find it extremely irrating with RTE (9 o'clock except for the news) does not mean 9 o'clock.

I had Joey tagged last night and it was 5 minutes past 9 when it started. I have noticed it with other program schedules too. If a program is to start at 8.15 well you can allow another 3 or 4 minutes for ads.

Has anyone else noticed RTE's shoddy timekeeping?

angeleyes :mad:

Friday night taped Love potion no.9 on my sky+ on rte, Recording ended 5min before the end and i have the box set to 10min after recording to stop which means 15 min gone astray somewhere. Typical rte :rolleyes:

FX Meister

djpaul wrote:

Friday night taped Love potion no.9 on my sky+ on rte, Recording ended 5min before the end and i have the box set to 10min after recording to stop which means 15 min gone astray somewhere. Typical rte :rolleyes:

It's **** anyway, you didn't miss anything.

mike65

I'm old enough to remember when RTE 1 was about 20 mins out by closedown at 11.35.

Mike.

sceptre

It'll be funny if they ever go 24-hours with their own stuff as opposed to a nice elastic amount of Euronews every morning. They'll have to show stuff on time or alternatively can either drop the odd show or start showing Wednesday's news sometime on Thursday. If they're still showing any Sunday morning religious services they'll slowly move through the week over the course of time, eventually displacing the Late Late on Friday night before moving slowly back to Sunday morning. Any movies to be shown after the watershed will sometimes be shown in the place of The Den, the Afternoon Show will be on in the mornings (as it currently already is) and the Six One News will be on whenever the hell they like. No change there with the last one.

nlgbbbblth

One of my main gripes with RTE is their inability to start problems on time

7:30pm programmes used begin at 7:27pm

set the video to tape The Devil's Rain on Sunday night. Scheduled start time 2:40am. I set the video to start at 2:40am, the film started at 2:49am which means an extra 9 mins of crap at the start which impacts on getting another film to fit on the tape (E180)

anything scheduled for the "small hours" is totally unreliable.
Oireachtas Report tends to mess up schedules too.

I have emailed them about this on several occasions - not even a reply

also TG4 - started their Laochra Gael repeat of the Justin McCarthy doc 15 minutes early which meant a lot of people got caught out. Again, not even the courtesy of a response

Mossy Monk

i wish they used the same system BBC and Sky use

like PDC but in satellite mode

Dr. Dre

I feel your pain, it's one of the reasons I don't watch any new series on RTE, despite them usually having them first (e.g. E.R., West Wing etc..) I prefer to leave it for a few weeks until E4, or whatever, start showing them.

ka

I think TG4 have to get the award for most laid back programme start times....Nip/Tuck 15 mins late on one occasion, Ros Na Run...well dont get me started - its never on time on a sunday night!

Telefís

The biggest problem RTÉ has is the length of EastEnders - it is what throws most of the early evening schedule because they chuck in an ad break in the middle of what is a BBC programme, usually around 28 minutes long. Coupled with breaks at the beginning and end, it goes well over the half hour.

As was pointed out by nlgbbbblth, to curb the problem they end other programmes early earlier in the evening, such as Nationwide which finishes at around 19.24/25 to build up some breathing space for later, resulting in other programmes starting early. It is a very unprofessional way to do business.

The worst night used to be Thursday which had a build up of long progs that pushed the News to 21.04/06, but it's improved a bit recently. The programme that goes out before the News at 9 like 'Househunters' or 'Show Me the Money' appear to be specifically commissioned now to under-run slightly so the news can come in on time. They still haven't got it exactly but it's an improvement nonetheless.

nlgbbbblth

cool username

Telefís

I had to copy and paste yours - the only way of staying sane

ScruffySlayer

Desperate Housewives is ALWAYS late! it started at 10:08 last week! The OC can be quite badly timed too.

Xennon

Why in da name of Jaysus dont RTE have Quality Control like any other comapny...I mean in fairness...the late late is like watching a car crash with children involved. These Sat morning programs with idiotic talking dogs.... I feel for the poor dog.... And where do they fnd these 'bimbo presenters' that seem to shout everything??...And that tubridy!??....no...no matter how often he smiles inanely I will not watch his program.. why would I watch anything that makes me cringe that much.....'Youre a star' .. Dave Fanning and Ray D'arcy..RTE trying to make the Eurovision cool...WHY???...It was always crap...let it go...spend the money somewhere else...like try out some of the more talented tv people around before they run off the CH4 or others...Im really getting sick of listening to the likes of Linda Martin criticising others... please go back to the horible hotel ballroom gigs you came from...And you know whats really getting me annoyed???..WE are paying for it!!!...Since Ive got SKY digital Ive watched more TG4 than RTE.. and you know what??..theyre good....very good...at what they do.
End of rant..bring back halls pictorial weekly I say..

Dave W.

skymanlouth

djpaul wrote:

Friday night taped Love potion no.9 on my sky+ on rte, Recording ended 5min before the end and i have the box set to 10min after recording to stop which means 15 min gone astray somewhere. Typical rte :rolleyes:

I have done the same with the larry sanders show. Same thing. what i do now is check the end before i watch and be disapointed. There seems to be a facility where the program overruns the EPG is updated, would have missed the penalties after the arsenal Cup game last week. if the BBC didn't update the EPG

LFCFan

RTE obviously couldn't be arsed updating the EPG when their schedule get's screwed up. Same with TG4 and TV3. Must be an Irish thing

DublinWriter

Nah, they're using the time-honoured system of 'oh sure, jaysus, faith and begorah, sure it'll do' down in Montrose.

segadreamcast

"Since Ive got SKY digital Ive watched more TG4 than RTE.. and you know what??..theyre good....very good...at what they do."

We're paying for TG4 too though - and apparently somewhere in the region of 20% of the TV budget goes towards it I'm told...

The Fitz

the simpson always starts late on rte2

DublinWriter

From what I've heard TG4 run an annual budget of 10million. Peanuts when you look at the 200+ million it costs to run RTE annually.

The old addage about art working best under constraints comes to mind.

Telefís

TG4 are funded directly by the State, albeit via the distributing hand of RTÉ. It's about €25m at the moment but is set to go up over the next few years to maybe as much as €40+million - presumably once they get full indepedence from RTÉ. But it's still a shoestring all right; they make excellent use of it though.

As far as I know though RTÉ still funded the setup of TG4 - and was particularly annoyed at its last precious licence fee increase before that huge lull being ploughed into its sister station. As far as I know this was the case...

Hugh Hefner

I was thinking about this recently. Was gonna make a thread but was beaten to it. After 11:00 shows might not start for 10 mins. and some start earlier. I was gonna record Some Like It Hot came downstairs 5 mins. before it was scheduled to start and it was already 2 mins. in so I had missed the beginning.

Cabaal

Dr. Dre wrote:

I feel your pain, it's one of the reasons I don't watch any new series on RTE, despite them usually having them first (e.g. E.R., West Wing etc..) I prefer to leave it for a few weeks until E4, or whatever, start showing them.

I used to hate watching stuff on RTE as they'd always find "something" that was more important to show every few weeks or they'd cancel the series half way through!.....I don't watch RTE anymore.....

Telefís

It's two and a half minutes past nine and 'Show me the Money hasn't even finished yet alone the News started :rolleyes:

Telefís

In the vein of Six One, the 9 News should now become Nine Five.

Pigman II

Fair City on Thur started at 8.07pm (supposed to be 8.00 I presume)

Mossy Monk

i noticed on friday afternoon, programmes were starting 7 minutes early